


Violet Jeer

by Dlanor A Knox (KawaiiFiveO)



Category: Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry, 하루만 네가 되고 싶어 | I Want to Be You Just For a Day (Webcomic)
Genre: Body Swap, Chess Metaphors, Fantasy, Gen, Magic, Metafiction, Mystery, Spoilers, Tea Parties
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:54:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28768893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KawaiiFiveO/pseuds/Dlanor%20A%20Knox
Summary: The Golden Witch, BEATRICE.I wanted to be her, even just for a day.Medea and Psyche face off in a battle of truth and deception.The difficulty level is standard.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	1. Tea Party of the Violet Witch

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  **Spoiler Warning**   
> 
> 
>   
> This short story is intended for those who have read “Your Throne/To Be You, Even Just For a Day (Chapter 24)” and “Umineko no Naku Koro ni (Episode 2).” No knowledge of Umineko is required to enjoy this story, but it may be helpful. Only characters from Your Throne will appear in this story.
> 
> This story is not recommended for readers currently on Umineko Episode 1 or 2.

“You were too careless during the last game, Medea. That trick murder of yours using the poisoned tea was completely denied by Knox’s 4th.”

_It is forbidden for unknown drugs or hard to understand scientific devices to be used._

“Well… I must admit, it was a painful move. Giving up a piece that early in the game. Normally, I would’ve be able to use her for many more things. How dull.”

They sat across from one another, the casual atmosphere of the tea room unable to fully mask the deadly determination lurking beneath the faces of the two women. The cups that they had set on the table were already going cold.

“But this is a different game, Psyche. It is only the beginning, and there are still many pieces left for us to play with! Come, let us proceed to the second twilight.”

“Ah, hold it for a second, Medea. Pass me one of those cookies.”

“Mm, I suppose it can wait... I’m a little hungry, to be honest. Helios should be here soon with our lunch.”

Another ten minutes passed. A new batch of tea was prepared.

“Come on. Slaughtering those six knights out in the woods with that magical light show earlier? There’s plenty of room there to slip in unknown culprits again. You’re just messing around with me now.”

“But wasn’t it fun to watch?” Medea smiled.


	2. The Two Who Are Close

They stood on opposite sides of the bedroom. The two great mages, EROS and PSYCHE, were in a deadlock. Within this enclosed space, any attack fired even slightly off-target would cause large amounts of collateral damage.

This concern did not cross either of their minds. It would certainly be over before anyone could arrive to help.

PSYCHE fought on without uttering a word. There was no need to talk now. Her focus was solely on ending the life of that man as swiftly as possible – the one who had betrayed them, the one who was behind it all.

She knew well that EROS did not have her resolve. He would take every opportunity to taunt her, to goad her into making one mistake. Yet she couldn’t hear anything that he was saying – such was her razor-sharp focus. His mouth moved wordlessly - she responded with no more than a passive glare, years of built-up contempt behind it.

She feinted, then stepped to the right with a speed far greater than she had previously demonstrated until now. The fireball that was aimed at the spot where she stood flew right through her afterimage and past her left side, hitting the wall. It burst, and the wall was instantly set aflame.

They were running out of time.

His momentary surprise at having missed his attack due to miscalculating her speed was the only opening she needed. The golden thread she launched from her fingertips drew a beautiful arc through the air, faster than any human could react. EROS instinctively summoned his defensive barrier.

But he couldn’t move it quickly enough. The outcome of this battle was already decided at that moment.

The deadly projectile flew straight past him – then deflected off the vanity table mirror behind him, passing directly through his heart. Dark red blood splattered at her feet.

An underhanded attack? Of course! She was never here to play fair.

“Pathetic.”

With that parting remark, she turned and walked out to the balcony. A snap of her fingers and the double doors closed behind her, the lock sliding firmly into place. The sensation of heat left her, and she felt only a light breeze now.

Illuminated dimly by the flames, she stepped over the railing – and she flew, landing gracefully from that third-story balcony…

* * *

“Truly a beautiful tale, Milady.” Helios had entered the room at some point.

Psyche, however, was unimpressed.

“Ah, how amazing would that be had we actually faced off in a magical duel to the death! It would certainly have been better than the outcome we actually got.”

“So why not just accept it as the truth? PSYCHE and EROS are actually powerful, high-ranking witches, and they had a wonderful battle there that night! Then this strangely toasted and locked room is very simple to create, isn’t it?” Medea gestured grandly as it was presented.

Psyche hit the table with her fist for effect, though she carefully restrained her hand in order to not disturb the tableware.

“As if I would believe something that ridiculous! The two of them randomly switch consciousnesses between their bodies, and possess a great magical power that can be used to kill him instantly like that? And he’s the one that set the room on fire with his magic fireball attack? That’s completely impossible! There’s a ton of ways that someone could’ve set this up.”

In the last game, Medea had also been unable to deny Psyche’s theory that she actually had dissociative identity disorder.

“Oh, come on! You’re clearly a fan of that huge collection of fantasy manga you have on your bookshelf, aren’t you? This isn’t even an incredibly unrealistic amount of power creep compared to that, you know…?”

“This is the real world; there’s no way that happened! It’s something mundane, isn’t it? Like setting the room on fire with the candles after stabbing him through the chest. Is that barbecued corpse even really him?”

“You call this mundane?! Very well. If you still don’t believe in me, then I shall force your hand! The servants discovered the dead body of Eros within the master bedroom. All the doors and windows were locked from the inside. This room satisfies Medea’s Closed Room Definition.”

_The term 'closed room' refers to a room where the inside and the outside are completely cut off from each other. Naturally, it will be impossible to even affect things across that boundary line, much less enter or escape across it. This includes an all-inclusive denial of the existence of hidden doors, as well as all possibility of intervention from the outside._

The amount of moves available to Psyche had been greatly reduced with a single strike, denying common tricks such as fishing lines and small openings.

“Tch. A strong opening move, as I expected. Let us first confirm that she isn’t still hiding in the room.”

“I will acknowledge it. Psyche does not exist within this room.”

“Including the bathroom and the closet?” Psyche tilted her head skeptically.

“She is not hiding anywhere within this room, or the bathroom or closet.”

“Is that referring to her body, or her current personality? I’m pretty sure that Medea was the one in control at that moment. I don’t want this to be a trick where her name changes when they switch.”

“Yes, I’m referring to the blonde-haired girl with green eyes. ‘Psyche’ refers to her regardless of the personality in control of her body.”

“Very good. Now, might his death be due to an accident or suicide?”

“Pfft… Now, I’m amused to imagine a scenario in which he accidentally set the room on fire and died due to smoke inhalation. Actually, I can’t deny that it was set up to look like an accidental death. Unfortunately, it was a homicide. He was murdered by Psyche inside this room; we assume Medea was in control of her body at that moment. By the way, his death was instant. Anyone would die instantly to a projectile passing through their heart, right...?”

“So he wasn’t the one to lock the door. Where are the keys to this room?” Psyche changed the form of her attack. If it wasn’t the two of them, then suspicion automatically fell onto the servants.

“There are only two keys relating to this locked room. One is the bedroom key, left inside of the room. The other is the master key that was used to unlock the door this morning.”

“I see. Then, I propose that this locked room was set up by one of the servants. Psyche escaped, and then that master key was used to re-lock the door. Your move.”

Medea responded in kind. “The key was not used on that door until this morning, when the locked room was broken by the servants.”

“Hmm.” Psyche took another sip and set her tea down with a noisy clunk. “The balcony door. She left through that door, and then the master key was used to lock it from the outside!”

“How the hell would she do that?!” Medea groaned as Psyche’s classic reasoning skills returned her to reality. “We’re on the third-floor balcony!”

“Heh. Does it matter? Obviously, she climbed down with a rope, and then one of the servants climbed back up that rope and used the key to lock it. Or she did it herself, and then gave the key back later!” Psyche grinned as she pressed onward. “Any objections?”

“O-of course I object! Nobody used that master key on the balcony door!”

“So, you deny any use of the master key. The bedroom key, if you will?”

“It’s locked inside of the room. How would you use it from the outside?”

“I can see one way. But it would be unnecessary, because the master key is also needed. Maybe… you want me to think that they somehow used this key before returning it to the inside of the locked room?”

“My, whyever would you suspect that?” Medea asked smugly, regaining her composure. “It sounds like a fine theory to me.”

“If it’s for locking doors from the outside and it was found on the inside, then it wasn’t used to seal the room. Therefore, we can rule out the fact that it was used in the first place. There doesn’t exist a way to return it inside.”

“A good move – you’re correct, after all. But you’ve only sealed off this room further yourself. The bedroom key was not used on either door.”

“You think so? I’m pretty sure that this is to my advantage.”

At this point, they had already entered the endgame. The use of all keys had now been denied in red. As a result, both sides only had a few more possible moves they could make.

“If you cut down my final argument, then I might actually have to give this one up. But if you can’t say it…”

As Psyche bit into her next cookie, a bead of sweat slowly dripped down the side of Medea’s face. She could feel her escape route rapidly disappearing.

“Eros did not die because of a trap or any other remote device. Is that all?”

“No. There is still one move left.” Psyche pressed her attack, right into the opening left by the reckless pride that kept either of them from resigning…


	3. Psyche's Answer

“Reconstruct the crime scene of the second twilight.”

Psyche swiftly pulled open the door to the tea room, and in an instant, they were back inside the master bedroom. The aroma of burnt ashes overwhelmed them for several moments. They coughed as they stumbled towards the balcony side.

This was the state of the room as it was right before the servants had opened it and broken the seal.

After opening the windows to clear the air, Psyche began to search the room. Under the bed, behind the shelves, under the tables. Medea helped out for a moment, just to play along, before she got impatient.

“I’m impressed that you noticed the single opening I left. However, no one is hiding within this room. Is that your final move?”

“Not yet.” She kicked open the door to the closet.

“Nobody is hiding inside of the closet.” Medea sighed, as if Psyche’s line of reasoning was a colossal waste of their time.

“I suppose not in the literal sense. Anyway, it ends here, Medea. I have now found our true culprit, just in time for us to have lunch!”

Medea refrained from pointing out that they were several hours late for that.

“Or maybe that person is an accomplice, if that’s how you want to say it. Let me ask you one last question. _Where would one of the servants hide if they wanted to survive the fire?_ ”

Medea immediately realized what she was implying.

Psyche turned her back to Medea, gathering a large amount of magical power from the air within her hand before pointing her finger decisively at the bathroom door and releasing the charged attack. The beam was aimed at a precise angle, in such a way that if anyone had been inside of the bathtub, they would certainly be found completely skewered once the door was opened.

This was Psyche’s checkmate.

But Medea only smirked in response.

“There are no servants hiding inside of the bathroom.”

“No servants… But who else could…!”

She rushed forwards with a cry and kicked open the bathroom door, blowing away all the possibilities that remained until only one was left. As the smoke cleared, they were greeted by an unbelievable sight.

Medea’s corpse was found inside of the bathroom.

The position of her body was not even an inch off from when the servants had discovered it that morning.

  


That was the hopeless truth that Psyche had reached…


	4. Medea's Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Knox's 9th: It is permitted for observers to let their own conclusions and explanations be heard.

Psyche killed Eros by stabbing him through the chest.

She set the room on fire with the candles and escaped via one of the doors, leaving it unlocked.

Medea was hiding inside of the closet, waiting to kill Eros, but when she left it, she found that he was already dead.

She tried to escape through the main door, but it was not possible to open it at that moment because the fire had warped the frame of the door.

In the process of trying to open the door by adjusting the lock, she left it in a locked state and gave up. At this point, the closed room was established.

She was also unable to escape through the windows or the balcony door because they were on the third floor.

In order to survive the fire, she tried to hide inside the bathtub with the water turned on. Unfortunately, Medea eventually succumbed to smoke inhalation.

Therefore, Medea was murdered indirectly by Psyche. She became the second sacrifice required for the second twilight – the two who are close.

(If you believe Psyche’s theory, that is. If they were really switched at that moment, maybe that was Psyche who was murdered by Medea?)

  


_“You should have just accepted that it was magic.”_


End file.
